Text

Auke de Vries has designed various sculptures that have been given a permanent place in the public space of his home town The Hague. His sculptures usually look like fragile spatial drawings that encourage associations. One exception to this rule is the playful sculpture 'Chapeau', which literally refers to the hats of Queen Beatrix.

In 2005, the Queen opened the summer exhibition 'The Hague Sculpture' on Lange Voorhout. In view of her silver jubilee that year, the exhibition was given the title 'The Palace Garden'. De Vries was asked to create a royally inspired work of art for this exhibition. He did not have to think long. The association with the 'hat queen' was obvious. The festive sculpture with hats in all shapes, sizes and colours, hanging on a metal palisade, is an homage to Queen Beatrix who made wearing hats popular again. In 2006, the statue was given a permanent place in the garden of Noordeinde Palace.

Besides hats, the sculpture is also inspired by a family tree, a tree with apples of orange, but upside down. For 'Chapeau', the sculptor consciously sought coherence with the two sculptures he made for the new building of the Dutch Parliament in the early 1990s. There, De Vries hung his 'Netherlands country by the sea' high up in the atrium. This sculpture of fragile metal lines with associative objects is reminiscent of an inverted family tree. On the second floor of the Lower House building, there is also a wooden box with 12 oranges. A reference to the connection of the (original) twelve provinces with the House of Orange. In this light, 'Chapeau' has a figurative as well as a literal meaning, referring to the queen's hats. It expresses respect for her actions: hats off!